It's a grand old, high-flying job

Monday

Nov 19, 2012 at 12:01 AMNov 19, 2012 at 11:13 AM

MATTAPOISETT— When the Gillette building in Boston needed to install a 66-foot flagpole on its roof that was tough enough to carry a 12-by-18 foot Old Glory, the phone rang in a modest building in Mattapoisett. Richard DeMello, president and general factotum of Bete-Fleming, listened to the job requirements, exhaled and agreed to do it. "I haven't had to say no yet," he said with a smile.

DON CUDDY

MATTAPOISETT— When the Gillette building in Boston needed to install a 66-foot flagpole on its roof that was tough enough to carry a 12-by-18 foot Old Glory, the phone rang in a modest building in Mattapoisett. Richard DeMello, president and general factotum of Bete-Fleming, listened to the job requirements, exhaled and agreed to do it. "I haven't had to say no yet," he said with a smile.

These days, Bete-Fleming is all about flags and flagpoles and, as the job at Gillette testifies, the company's reputation has spread far beyond its inconspicuous home base near the Oxford Creamery on Route 6.

After spending 20 years as a purchasing agent with Concordia, DeMello bought the company from previous owner Bill Fleming some 16 years ago. It was then a maker of sail battens. "We still do a lot of that," DeMello said. "I have an order now from West Marine for almost a thousand battens."

But like many small businesses, facing increased competition from overseas companies, DeMello had to diversify to survive and began to manufacture fancy flagstaffs in mahogany and teak to adorn the bow and stern of boats. One day, a boat owner who owned PLP Composites, a flagpole manufacturing company in New Hampshire, offered DeMello a dealership.

"I knew rigging from the boatyard and he guaranteed me inventory," he said. "That was two months before 9/11 and I was the only guy with flags and flagpoles. We took off from there."

Now Bete-Fleming has become established as the go-to company for the installation and repair of all types of flagpoles.

"My equipment is very light. I don't need big cranes and I can do a lot of stuff alone," DeMello said. He also has four or five men with different skills that he can call on as needed, depending on the job. "I had three full-timers, but the health insurance was too much," he said.

A lot of work now comes from construction companies doing high schools and municipal buildings. "It would cost them more to take their guys off the job than to have me come in," he said.

The recently completed Gillette job, his most ambitious project yet, came via a construction company. "Nobody else wanted to tackle it," he said. DeMello enlisted All Phase Fabrication, a Fairhaven company owned by Joe Figuerido, to construct the base. "It was 6 feet tall, 4 by 4 at the base and 1-inch-thick steel," he said. "He did a great job." The pole measures 13 inches in diameter and in a 20-mph wind, will move 15 feet back and forth in either direction. "We had some ideas because we'd done some big ones. It was the engineers who were the nervous ones," DeMello said. " But I passed it the other day when I was doing a job in Beverly and I might be a little prejudiced, but it really looked good up there." While enjoying his success, DeMello also tries to give back to the local community. He donated flagpoles to Hastings Middle School in Fairhaven and plans to do another for the new Wood School under construction in Fairhaven.

DeMello believes he has found the perfect job. "It's such fun. When you put it up people are smiling and most of the time you are working in beautiful areas. it's just a neat situation."